Daily Business Report: Friday, Oct. 8, 2021
Governor signs bill opening door to more bachelor’s
degrees at California community colleges
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed historic legislation that expands and makes permanent the state’s pilot program allowing community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in specific workforce fields not offered by the University of California or California State University.
Assembly Bill 927 eliminates the 2026 sunset date on 15 existing baccalaureate degree programs and opens the door to as many as 30 new bachelor’s programs per year at any of the state’s 116 community colleges. The bill was sponsored by the Chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, Jose Medina (D-Riverside).
The bill establishes a process for the California Community Colleges C\chancellor to consult with and seek feedback from the California State University and University of California systems on proposed baccalaureate degrees and would require individual districts seeking approval to provide evidence of unmet workforce needs.
Photo: Health Information Management graduates from San Diego Mesa College participate in commencement ceremonies.
Reforms coming to state Employment
Development Department
The state’s beleaguered Employment Development Department will undergo reforms under measure signed into law by Gov. Newsom.
The department, which admitted it may have paid as much as $31 billion in fraudulent claims, including $1 billion to jail and prison inmates, must now set up a new office to coordinate anti-fraud efforts and cross-check prison rosters against jobless claimants.
Northrop Grumman awarded Air Force
contract for GHOST sensor development
Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force to design a signals intelligence sensor for high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms.
The company will employ its space awareness and global exploitation technology capabilities to deliver a prototype sensor with airborne and ground components for the Air Force’s Global High-altitude Open-system Sensor Technology (GHOST) program, Northrop Grumman said.
Northrop Grumman’s GHOST sensor prototype will feature an open standards-based hardware and software architecture that will be scalable and configurable for use on multiple types of manned and unmanned Air Force aircraft.
San Diego Foundation awards $500,000 grant to
Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce
The San Diego Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant from its Black Community Investment Fund and $200,000 grant from the Board of Governors to the Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce to start the Urban Business Resource Center. In total, $1 million has been raised to support the center and economic equity for Black entrepreneurs in San Diego.
The Urban Business Resource Center will provide a collaborative hub for Black-owned businesses and Black entrepreneurs through an extensive support network, educational workshops and other resources. The center will also host regular office hours and other activities that will increase Black entrepreneurs’ access to tools to grow their businesses, from mentorship to access to capital.
The foundation grant required the Central San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce to raise an additional $500,000 for the initiative. Donors included Bank of America and San Diego Gas & Electric, among others.
Mindy Collins promoted to chief philanthropy
officer at San Diego’s Ronald McDonald House
Mindy Collins is taking on a new role as chief philanthropy officer at San Diego’s Ronald McDonald House.
Collins joined the House in 2017 as director of corporate and community philanthropy and was responsible for securing corporate and community support at all levels, as well as grants, major gift donations and sponsorships for some of the charity’s most notable fundraisers, including the ROMP Gala, Red Shoe Day, Tables for Tots, Poker Ride and Dinner with Friends.
In her new role, Collins will oversee all philanthropic activities for the organization.
Those include majorgifts, planned giving, grants, fundraising events, corporate and community partnerships, and spearheading fundraising campaigns for future program and facility expansion.
Prior to joining the San Diego Ronald McDonald House team, Collins spent over a decade as the director of corporate and community development at Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation, where she graduated from the Rady Children’s Leadership Academy and managed and solicitated corporate and community donations, cause-marketing and employee giving campaigns ranging between $5,000 and $1 million.
Cibus appoints co-founder Rory Riggs
as chief executive officer
Cibus, an agricultural biotechnology company in San Diego, announced the appointment of Rory Riggs, co-founder, and Chairman of Cibus, to serve as chief executive officer. He will succeed Peter Beetham, also a Cibus co-founder, who has been appointed president and chief operating officer of the 20-year-old company.
Riggs has an extensive record of executive leadership and innovation in the health care and biotechnology fields. He is a co-founder, former chairman and director of Royalty Pharma, the largest acquirer of pharmaceutical royalties and leading funder of innovation in the life sciences.
In addition, he has co-founded and served on the board of several important biotechnology companies including Sugen and Fibrogen.
Previously, Riggs served as president and director of Biomatrix Inc. from 1996 until its sale to Sanofi/Genzyme.
During his tenure, he led the development and global commercial launch of an important new category for the treatment of osteoarthritis.
Bespoke Partners celebrates 10th anniversary
Bespoke Partners, a provider of accelerated executive search services for the private equity market, is celebrating a decade in business. Since its founding in San Diego in 2011 by CEO Kristie Nova, Bespoke Partners has grown to a nationwide recruiting and leadership advisory firm with three offices and more than 60 employees.
The company has carved out a unique focus as the only firm solely dedicated to serving software market portfolio companies backed by private equity.
“It has been a memorable journey with a truly amazing team,” Nova said. “I am honored to be working alongside such a hard-working, driven family of professionals and I can’t wait to see what the next decade brings.”
Over the past 10 years, Bespoke has evolved a data-driven search process called Search 2.0. This approach to portfolio company leadership transformation harnesses management science to accelerate search and placement of high-impact executives.
Kroc IPJ awarded $500,000 grant to study
collaborating for peace in a post-COVID era
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ) at USD’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. As part of the grant, Kroc IPJ will lead a two-year project focused on understanding the future of convening and collaboration in the peace and security space.
The project will establish a Peace Design Hub which will generate, test, and disseminate a core set of learnings regarding when activities focused on building peace should be in-person, hybrid, or virtual and how to maximize impact in each of these modalities.
Kroc IPJ will be working with and learning with four partners on this project: IREX, G7+, Mediators Beyond Border and The Wilson Center.
SCS Engineers announces specialized
brownfields redevelopment team
SCS Engineers announced the formation of a team of specialists to help clients secure newly available state grants for the remediation of brownfields and assist with environmental investigations and cleanup of the sites for development.
The Equitable Community Revitalization Grants, through the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, are intended to fund redevelopment and eligible projects in disadvantaged and vulnerable communities and promote affordable housing, community uses, revitalization, and equitable recycling of land.
“In the midst of a housing crisis, communities and affordable housing developers have a historic opportunity to obtain funding for the cleanup of some of the approximately 200,000 brownfields in the state that could be put back to their highest and best use,” said Dan Johnson, SCS Engineers vice president and national expert for Brownfields Redevelopment.
Holland America Line offers Onboard Spending
Money to military for San Diego cruise departures
Holland America Line is honoring members of the U.S. military with a special offer that adds $100 Onboard Spending Money to any cruise booking that departs from San Diego, through Dec. 31, 2021.
Holland America Line’s San Diego sailings are especially convenient for the many troops stationed in Southern California. The Military Appreciation Offer — available to active and retired members of the military — can be earned on a variety of seven-day cruises to Mexico and the California Coast aboard Koningsdam and the Dec. 23, 2021, 10-day Mexico Holiday departure on Zuiderdam,
The U.S. military has a large presence in San Diego with Naval Base San Diego, the U.S. Navy’s largest base on the West Coast and the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet. In total, the state of California has 32 military bases across all branches, with the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ bases clustered most heavily around San Diego.
Immunicom hires former FDA clinician
Immunicom Inc., a clinical stage biotech pioneering non-pharmaceutical immunotherapies, has hired Christian Shenouda as vice president of regulatory affairs to develop and execute regulatory strategy to integrate the Immunopheresis therapy into standard medical practice.
Immunicom expects streamlined regulatory approval for the Immunopheresis therapy under the expertise of Shenouda alongside Immunicom’s three ongoing clinical oncology trials. The addition of Shenouda to the Immunicom team strengthens plans to advance FDA regulatory interaction culminating in approval for Immunopheresis therapies currently under evaluation in clinical trials for various malignancies.
Shenouda joins Immunicom from the Food and Drug Administration.
